The invention pertains to a connector assembly for making connections under voltage or “with power on”. More specifically, the invention pertains to a connector assembly of this kind enabling repeated connections and/or disconnections under voltage between connection elements of said connector assembly without any risk of damaging the contact surfaces.
Certain applications in the field of connection systems call for the connection and/or disconnection of the connection elements when at least one of them is under voltage. In this case, the formation of an electrical arc is observed almost systematically between the complementary contacts, just before the electrical connection or just after the disconnection. The ionization that causes the electrical arc prompts a transfer of matter in the form of metal ions from one contact to the other. This transfer causes damage to the surfaces of the contacts and a deterioration of the electrical performance of the associated connector. The electrical resistance is then seen to increase until the electrical link is removed.
It is an aim of the invention to provide a connector assembly to set up connections under high voltage which, although they undergo the formation of electrical arcs at the time of the connection and/or disconnection, do not suffer any deterioration of electrical performance.
To this end, the invention proposes to shift the formation of the electrical arc to a non-functional part of the contacts, situated upstream to the functional part of said contacts. Thus, at the time of the connection, the electrical arc gets formed between the respective non-functional parts of the two complementary contacts, when the actual connection between the respective functional contacts of said contacts has not yet taken place. It is only when the non-functional parts of the two complementary contacts have been put into contact and therefore only when the electrical arc has disappeared that the functional parts of said contacts come into contact enabling the actual powering-on of the connector assembly. Conversely, during disconnection, there is initially a physical separation of the functional parts of said contacts while the non-functional parts for their part are still in contact. Then, the non-functional parts are away from each other. An electrical arc is then created again between these two non-functional parts. Thus, although the connector assembly of the invention cannot eliminate the formation of electrical arcs at the link between the complementary contacts of the connector assembly, it makes it possible to shift the phenomenon and the related physical deterioration to a part of the contacts not needed for the actual connection.